[ARCHIVED] Deploy Sub Accounts Now or Later

[dkemp]

I am ready to get sub accounts working in my Canvas instance, but honestly, I am a bit nervous with all that is going on. The pros I am looking for is division reps being able to make division announcements, template being created for division home pages and syllabus pages with the Design Tool (something separate we have), and being able to install some things at the sub account level rather than the root.

But I am afraid of the cons. What do I need to know? Do I wait until everyone is not on Canvas - I mean everyone, right now? Wait between summer and fall? What do my other admins advise?

[robotcars]

Hi  @dkemp 

With over 8,000 sub accounts in our Canvas I can assure you it's not that scary. You can make the changes while people are using Canvas. That said, you should have a plan, get all the pieces in order and test it on your Beta and or Test instances first. Accounts can also be moved around later.

How do you manage your integration with Canvas, through CSV or API or vendor integration?

I manage ours with CSV, but the concepts are the same.

Setup and Considerations

1. Determine the organization structure
   

   Canvas puts all courses in the root account by default, so the only purpose for sub accounts is organization. You can choose the organizational structure based on what makes sense for your setup or size. We have over 350 schools, each school has a sub account, each school has sub accounts for SIS courses vs Manual Courses  for sandboxing, workrooms, content, etc. The SIS Course sub accounts are configured so that when we import courses from the SIS the courses go into the sub account by department including Math, Science, English, Foreign Language. Math does not contain Algebra vs Calculus. This structure allows the department chair to be an 'admin' at that level but no level above it. It allows Principals to be the admin of their School but not above it. It also allows us to create sub accounts for departments or divisions.

   The biggest consideration for sub accounts probably comes down to naming convention and logic. If you are going to be using SIS Imports and automation (or even spreadsheet) you'll want to make sure the SIS ID for the account identifies the structure, so the course will get to the right sub account, especially if you have multiple or potential for multiple schools. 

   If you only have 1 school this isn't such a big deal.

   Ours looks like this...

   • 123
     • 123SIS
       • 123Math
       • 123Science

   sub-domains#comment-140451

   
   + We also have a 123MAN account, which is our Manually Created Courses course shells sub account for each school. This is where course shells are kept, and Blueprint would be kept, but Blueprints only work if they are in the account above or equal to the course. That's really annoying, because now schools using Blueprint have a bunch or Blueprint courses sitting in the root of their 123SIS account, which means they show up in our courses listed in our SIS accounts.
   
   + Each school gets a 123WRK, which is the Workrooms sub account, some call them Sandboxes, but empty non SIS courses where teachers and faculty can work on course content.
   
   + Having each school in its own sub account gave us the idea to create a sub account Conference course. This is a course in each school root (sub account) that we automate enrollments for. We assign school admin the teacher role and school faculty and staff the student role. This provides a place for resources, documents, files, and discussions within the school within Canvas.
   
   + We also put more than schools into Canvas, we kinda replicated our entire Org Chart into Canvas, which means top level departments and central office also have a sub account, with a Live Courses and a Manually Created Courses (shells) sub account. This means Employee Business Training, Professional Development, and other departments can use Canvas internally to provide training for staff, or outreach trainings.
2. Update CSV files
   You'll need an Account CSV file, this is important for the initial setup as it helps get everything established visually, test and initiate the reorg in Canvas. You'll also have to update the Course CSV file to include the account_id column, or pass/set account_id in your integration/API.
   SIS Import Format Documentation - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation 
   ex: filter-term-by-role#comment-122704 
   
   After your initial reorg, you'll have to ensure that courses loaded/pushed into Canvas from your SIS or integration continue to send the Account ID with any new course. So make sure it's something that can be generated from your data, or that you create some kind of key/lookup to add it. For instance... our account_id's are generated from the internal schoolcode, and department name of the course in the SIS. This means that when we run the daily course import that any new course across the district lands in the correct school and department sub account.
   
   To move accounts later, you would need to adjust the the parent_account_id for that account. This means you can move, delete, and reorg courses anytime in the future. Although, I suggest trying to establish your structure with an eye on the future, but start simply.
   
   
3. User permissions
   Make considerations for any permissions and roles you've granted, or may want to grant. Consider that the role you create can be applied across sub accounts, but that you can't really easily create custom roles at one level without it being available at the others, maybe just not assigned.
   

   ...we have used this for our 365+ principals and their APs. How we set it up is that we created a "Staff Admin" role that is view everything. We also adjusted the "Account Admin" role if it's below the top level so that it doesn't have a couple things. We created a training for Canvas Controllers so each school could have 1-3 people with edit rights and the ability to make courses manually (which is off for the normal user). Then we set building admin up as "Staff Admin" so they can see all but edit nothing for their building (each school has its own sub account). We didn't want someone without training or admin approval to have edit rights to a school's environment. We also understood that with a district this large we couldn't really manage all of the potential day-to-day things they might want to do. This was our balance.

   Additionally, if they have a Science Department chair that they want to have view access to all science courses, there is a sub account for each department in each school so they could assign that person "Staff Admin" access to just the Science Department and it would allow them to be able to look into any science course and help out. Likewise if a school wanted their counselors to have view access to their school they could assign them the same rights. It gave them ownership of that role to use as needed.

   adding-account-role-building-principal#comment-127082

   
   The Staff Admin is assigned using the Admins CSV file, generated from our HR data, I get principal, AP, and school admin, and auto assign the role_id for Staff Admin. This can be done manually in Canvas too, it just takes more time.

If you plan it out and test it, you're basically just moving courses around into different folders. Your users won't notice. Teachers and students will still have access to their courses. Root Admins will not be affected. Your can assign the proper roles at each sub account for anyone who had specific permissions. Root Admins, or any sub account admin will be given the Admin Menu, and can easily jump to the sub account. Sometimes that's not enough, Admin Tray - Sub Account Menu

You can also use themes at each sub account, How do I manage themes for an account? 

Themes would allow you to add specific custom JavaScript and CSS, or add widgets that can be used without being applied to the whole Canvas instance. cascading-stylesheetsjavascript-from-main-account-to-sub-accounts#comment-106016

Let me know if you have any questions, happy to assist.

[dkemp]

Robert,

Thank you for taking the time to give me such a detailed explanation. This really helps, and I also can see from what you said about the complexity of your situation, that having one school makes all this much easier. We do use the CSV file update, and my programmer has that part all figured out as far as our divisions go, but you helped me with the details of where to put sandbox courses and some of the groups that use Canvas. I like to get everyone using Canvas, and it looks like you all feel the same way. It can be so powerful, and it has been so helpful right now as the campus went online. I am going to study your plan and work on creating my plan beyond just the divisions. As I do that, I will definitely reach out to you. Thank you again!

[buellj]

We're using sub-accounts. I came from the corporate LMS world so the lack of Canvas fields to filter was a challenge. We do it for a couple of reasons; to be able to separate courses, course series and school courses; to deploy school-specific LTIs/themes/settings and to enable school/department admins. We have an SIS feed but the system is old and limited so our structure is:

School (Seattle University)

   College 1 (College of Arts & Sciences)

      Course Series 1 (ENGL)

         Course (all ENGL 3500)

      Course Series 2

   College 2...

The accounts correspond to the course/school subaccounts in our SIS so everything usually ends up where it needs to go and I periodically clean up things that end up at our top level.

I highly recommend it. We were shamed by Instructure for using sub-accounts at various times but I think they are finally realizing that the rest of the database driven apps in the world have much more functionality. Best of luck,

[RobDitto]

TL;DR - no cons of sub-accounts, only pros! And the same goes for implementing Terms if your institution is on any form of regular calendar for things like semesters, quarters, or "mods".

[rebecca_william]

I made the jump to sub-accounts last fall, two weeks before finals. It went okay except for one glitch...My only warning is that the Roll Call Attendance Reporting function for instructors was somehow tied to the sub-account. So, when the semester ended my faculty who used Roll Call Attendance (with the Attendance Report) were only able to see the last two weeks. Oops!  Thankfully, from the admin menu, we also have Attendance and my reports were complete. I don't know if it was because the role was now tied to the sub-account and limited by that from the "full" report. We don't have many Roll Call users and fewer using the reporting tool, so pulling the reports for faculty was not a big deal, but I would not move courses to new sub-accounts midterm again. 

[dkemp]

Oh wow Rebecca,

Okay, so that helps me know to wait until between Fall and summer. That is what I was leaning toward. You all are so awesome! This discussion really helps. I know everyone is busy so thank you for taking the time for me.